Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Composite materials are useful in many industrial fields, such as aeronautics, automobile, and sports, and their usage is increasing. Composite waste has previously been disposed of in landfills or by incineration. However, environmental concerns and potentially new legislative changes on waste disposal motivate the research and development of technologies aimed at recycling these composite materials. Only a few approaches to recovering carbon fibers from carbon fiber reinforced plastics have been reported. There is a need for simple and efficient methods capable of recovering carbon fibers from carbon fiber reinforced plastics.